Does Carrying a Rider Change Motor and Sensory Laterality in Horses?

Laterality in horses has been studied in recent decades. Although most horses are kept for riding purposes, there has been almost no research on how laterality may be affected by carrying a rider. In this study, 23 horses were tested for lateral preferences, both with and without a rider, in three different experiments.

Complement Proteins C5/C5a, Cathepsin D and Prolactin in Chondrocytes: A Possible Crosstalk in the Pathogenesis of Osteoarthritis.

Introduction: Both increased activity of the complement system (CS) and the role of the pituitary hormone prolactin (PRL) are implicated in osteoarthritis (OA) pathogenesis. Besides, Cathepsin D (CatD) activity is increased in the context of OA and can exert not only proteolytic but also non-proteolytic effects on cells. For the first time, possible crosstalk between two separate humoral systems: the CS and the PRL hormone systems in chondrocytes are examined together.

Synthetic cell-based materials extract positional information from morphogen gradients.

Biomaterials composed of synthetic cells have the potential to adapt and differentiate guided by physicochemical environmental cues. Inspired by biological systems in development, which extract positional information (PI) from morphogen gradients in the presence of uncertainties, we here investigate how well synthetic cells can determine their position within a multicellular structure. To calculate PI, we created and analyzed a large number of synthetic cellular assemblies composed of emulsion droplets connected via lipid bilayer membranes.

The Italian Version of the Severe Respiratory Insufficiency Questionnaire.

Background: The Severe Respiratory Insufficiency Questionnaire (SRI) is a multidimensional instrument for health-related quality of life (HRQL) assessment in patients with chronic respiratory failure (CRF). The SRI has originally been developed in German in 2003, but 15 translated versions have been created during the last 18 years with the exclusion of the Italian translation.

Aims Of The Study: The present project was aimed at creating an Italian version of the SRI.

Distribution and Characteristics of spp. in Pigs and Pork Production Chains in Germany.

(.) is a foodborne pathogen that can cause disease, mainly in elderly, pregnant or immunocompromised persons through consumption of contaminated food, including pork products. It is widespread in the environment and can also be found in asymptomatic carrier animals, for example, in different tissues of pigs.

Elucidating the role of earth alkaline doping in perovskite-based methane dry reforming catalysts.

To elucidate the role of earth alkaline doping in perovskite-based dry reforming of methane (DRM) catalysts, we embarked on a comparative and exemplary study of a Ni-based Sm perovskite with and without Sr doping. While the Sr-doped material appears as a structure-pure SmSrNiO Ruddlesden Popper structure, the undoped material is a NiO/monoclinic SmO composite. Hydrogen pre-reduction or direct activation in the DRM mixture in all cases yields either active Ni/SmO or Ni/SmO/SrCO materials, with albeit different short-term stability and deactivation behavior.

Distinct increase in antimicrobial resistance genes among Escherichia coli during 50 years of antimicrobial use in livestock production in China.

Antimicrobial use in livestock production is linked to the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), but large-scale studies on AMR changes in livestock isolates remain scarce. Here we applied whole-genome sequence analysis to 982 animal-derived Escherichia coli samples collected in China from the 1970s to 2019, finding that the number of AMR genes (ARGs) per isolate doubled-including those conferring resistance to critically important agents for both veterinary (florfenicol and norfloxacin) and human medicine (colistin, cephalosporins and meropenem). Plasmids of incompatibility groups IncC, IncHI2, IncK, IncI and IncX increased distinctly in the past 50 years, acting as highly effective vehicles for ARG spread.

Population structure and gene flow in the Sheepnose mussel () and their implications for conservation.

North American freshwater mussel species have experienced substantial range fragmentation and population reductions. These impacts have the potential to reduce genetic connectivity among populations and increase the risk of losing genetic diversity. Thirteen microsatellite loci and an 883 bp fragment of the mitochondrial ND1 gene were used to assess genetic diversity, population structure, contemporary migration rates, and population size changes across the range of the Sheepnose mussel ().

Development of Quality Control Ranges for Biocide Susceptibility Testing.

Every laboratory test needs validation by quality controls. For biocide susceptibility testing (BST), neither quality control (QC) strains nor QC ranges applicable to these strains are currently available. As QC strains, four well-defined laboratory reference strains ( ATCC 6538, ATCC 10541, ATCC 10536 and ATCC 15442), which have been used previously for biocide efficacy testing, were selected.

Antimicrobial and Biocide Resistance among Canine and Feline , , , , and Isolates from Diagnostic Submissions.

A total of 215 isolates from infections of dogs and cats, including 49 , 37 , 59 , 56 , and 14 , were investigated for their susceptibility to 27 (Gram-positive bacteria) or 20 (Gram-negative bacteria) antimicrobial agents/combinations of antimicrobial agents by broth microdilution according to the recommendations of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. Moreover, all isolates were analysed for their susceptibility to the biocides benzalkonium chloride, chlorhexidine, polyhexanide, and octenidine by a recently published broth microdilution biocide susceptibility testing method. While the isolates did not show expanded resistances, considerable numbers of the isolates were resistant to penicillins, macrolides, tetracyclines, and fluoroquinolones.

Antimicrobial and Biocide Resistance among Feline and Canine and Isolates from Diagnostic Submissions.

A total of 114 isolates from various infections of companion animals, including 43 feline , 19 canine , 11 feline and 41 canine were investigated for (i) their susceptibility to 24 antimicrobial agents and three combinations of antimicrobial agents by broth microdilution following CLSI recommendations and (ii) the corresponding resistance genes. In addition, the isolates were tested for their susceptibility to the four biocides benzalkonium chloride, chlorhexidine, polyhexanide and octenidine by a recently developed biocide susceptibility testing protocol. Penicillin resistance via was the dominant resistance property in all four groups of isolates ranging between 76.

Aversive view memories and risk perception in navigating ants.

Many ants establish foraging routes through learning views of the visual panorama. Route models have focused primarily on attractive view use, which experienced foragers orient towards to return to known sites. However, aversive views have recently been uncovered as a key component of route learning.

Neuromelanin-MRI to Quantify and Track Nigral Depigmentation in Parkinson's Disease: A Multicenter Longitudinal Study Using Template-Based Standardized Analysis.

Background: Clinical diagnosis and monitoring of Parkinson's disease (PD) remain challenging because of the lack of an established biomarker. Neuromelanin-magnetic resonance imaging (NM-MRI) is an emerging biomarker of nigral depigmentation indexing the loss of melanized neurons but has unknown prospective diagnostic and tracking performance in multicenter settings.

Objectives: The aim was to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of NM-MRI in early PD in a multiprotocol setting and to determine and compare serial NM-MRI changes in PD and controls.

Influence of Periodic Non-Uniformities of Well-Structured Sapphire Surface by LIPSS on the Alignment of Nematic Liquid Crystal.

In this study, we report on the alignment properties of nematic liquid crystals on various transparent structured sapphire layers formed by laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS). One-dimensional LIPSS (1D-LSFL) are generated by infrared femtosecond laser pulses along parallel lines covering an area of 5 × 5 mm, with a line spacing that is varied between 7 and 17 µm. These periodic structures, employed as alignment layers, have a spatial periodicity of about 980 nm, a modulation depth of about 100 nm, and exhibit a high quality due to being characterized by a high degree of homogeneity and parallelism of the structured features.

Risk Assessment of Caffeine and Epigallocatechin Gallate in Coffee Leaf Tea.

Coffee leaf tea is prepared as an infusion of dried leaves of spp. in hot water. It is a traditional beverage in some coffee-producing countries and has been authorized in 2020 within the European Union (EU) according to its novel food regulation.

Recombination events that occur in a poxtA-carrying Enterococcus faecium during the conjugation process.

Objectives: To investigate transferability of the poxtA-carrying plasmids in Enterococcus faecium and the mechanism of recombination that occurs during the conjugation process.

Methods: MICs were determined by broth microdilution. Transferability of the poxtA-carrying plasmids in E.

A role for ColV plasmids in the evolution of pathogenic Escherichia coli ST58.

Escherichia coli ST58 has recently emerged as a globally disseminated uropathogen that often progresses to sepsis. Unlike most pandemic extra-intestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC), which belong to pathogenic phylogroup B2, ST58 belongs to the environmental/commensal phylogroup B1.

Initial and ten-year treatment patterns among 11,000 breast cancer patients undergoing breast surgery-an analysis of German claims data.

Background: We aimed to explore the potential of German claims data for describing initial and long-term treatment patterns of breast cancer patients undergoing surgery.

Methods: Using the German Pharmacoepidemiological Research Database (GePaRD, ~ 20% of the German population) we included patients with invasive breast cancer diagnosed in 2008 undergoing breast surgery and followed them until 2017. We described initial and long-term treatment patterns and deaths.